Young Writers Society

At times (read: very often) I find that my paragraphs are very short, with no room for description or detail. What do you guys do to make sure you include such things in your writing?

I first figure out my style.

Some styles simply do not lend themselves to much description. That's just fine and some people actually prefer stories like that. It's called minimalist writing and quite a few greats (whose names, unfortunately, escape me) fall into that category.

However, if you really want to include description into your writing, start from the character.

Step 1- Figure out what they are taking in. Don't just focus on sight, but all five senses. What do they taste, smell, touch, hear? Look at it from their perspective so you're not forcing anything into the story.

Step 2- Describe things in their terms, when they pay attention to it. Don't put description in for the sake of it— use it to characterize, give emotion to the scene, generally richen the story. Adding description for the sake of description just doesn't work. You'll end up cutting it anyway.

Step 3- Read descriptive works! Prose and poetry. Study poetic devices, and articles on description. See how others do it and figure out what you like and didn't. You have to like description in order to actually write it, I've found, and you have to feel like it'll work for the story.

Hope this helps.

As always, Rosey was exceptionally good at helping you out there. I have my own tips. I suggest you read works by Ernest Hemingway. He was a master of brevity, but he used description to his advantage, and it matches his writing style. If you writing style involves short sentences, keep the description short.

Otherwise? I have a few suggestions.

Don't focus on describing your main character. Focus on minor characters and setting.

Don't use cliches. Avoid them like the plague (lol). Same with adverbs (unless you must). Avoid the word very, by the way. If you need an adverb, you might just need a stronger word.

To repeat something Rosey said because it bears repeating: Avoid describing things if you don't have to. If it's not broken, don't fix it.

Make the description part of the action (or otherwise). Instead of pausing to explain something, make it part of the flow. EX: "John's white-blonde hair was mussed into a rat's nest, highlighting his madness, and he knocked over a line of knickknacks at Lila's grandmother's crowded home." You draw conclusions from this. (I hope.) Basically, description should never hold up a story, and if it does, the pause should be brief, minuscule.

I find myself at a loss of what else to say at a busy today, but I have an activity to suggest. When you want to describe something or someone, picture it in your head. Imagine it with all your senses. Write down the first five, ten, or fifteen things that come to mind. And then when writing your description, don't allow yourself to use any of those things you wrote down. It keeps you from being simplistic or boring in your descriptions.

-Cas